News Article

Denny Hamlin leads Happy Hour, the last practice session before the Dodge Dealers 400 on Sunday

September 22, 2007
Brian Smith

Dale Earnhardt Jr. ended Happy Hour practice 10th.

NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series Happy Hour practice

In the hours between the morning practice and Happy Hour for Sunday's Dodge Dealers 400, the No. 99 Office Depot Ford team appeared to figure something out.

Carl Edwards took the car out in a final practice abbreviated by rain at Dover International Speedway and knocked three-tenths off his lap time from the morning session, turning in the third-fastest lap time at 149.576 mph.

Denny Hamlin posted the fastest time in both sessions, with Happy Hour coming on a green track after a brief but heavy rain passed over the track immediately following Busch Series qualifying. It was more of a Happy Half Hour as a result, with the cars taking the track about 30 minutes late after the track was dried.

Chase co-leaders Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon were impressive, running fourth- and sixth-fastest, respectively.  Rookie David Ragan jumped from 147.263 mph in the morning to 148.447 mph in the afternoon, moving from 20th to 11th.  

After running third-fastest in the morning session with a lap of 149.464 mph, Tony Stewart could only manage a lap of 146.461 in Happy Hour, posting him in 24th. Juan Pablo Montoya also slid over the course of the day - he qualified second yesterday, but ran 19th in the morning practice and 27th in Happy Hour.

NASCAR Busch Series qualifying

Greg Biffle zipped around the Monster Mile in 23.310 seconds to claim the pole for today's RoadLoans.com 200 NASCAR Busch Series race at Dover International Speedway.

Biffle took the pole with a lap speed of 154.440 mph, ahead of the 153.886 mph turned in by points leader Carl Edwards, who will start second. It's Biffle's first pole at Dover in any racing circuit.

Dave Blaney qualified third, turning a lap of 153.623 mph less than five minutes before the skies above the speedway opened with a 20-minute late summer downpour that drenched the track.

Rookie Marcos Ambrose ran well in June here in Dover, but he'll start from the 43rd spot on owners points after he wrecked during his qualifying attempt. He lost control coming out of turn two and hit the wall nearly head on halfway down the backstretch. His car was a foot shorter but he climbed out unscathed.

NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series morning practice

Denny Hamlin's first lap of 150.950 mph was the fastest of Saturday morning's Nextel Cup practice session at Dover International Speedway, as drivers began tinkering with race trim in preparations for Sunday's Dodge Dealers 400.

Hamlin's fast lap came on his first of 46 laps run in the practice session, and many drivers followed suit with their quickest laps of the day coming in their first five circuits around the track.

Hamlin, No. 11 FedEx Ground Chevrolet, and pole sitter Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Lowe's Chevrolet, were the only drivers to top 150 mph in the session. Just three more - Tony Stewart, Kurt Busch and Casey Mears - reached the 149 mph mark.

Rookie A.J. Allmendinger will head into this afternoon's Happy Hour not having seen much of the Monster Mile in his Nextel Cup car. He only turned 16 laps after missing practice entirely on Friday with a blown engine. He qualified 11th despite the problems.